Classification of Low Probability of Intercept Radar Waveforms Using Gabor Wavelets

Abstract

Low Probability of Intercept (LPI Radar) is a class of radar with specific technical characteristics that make it very difficult to intercept with electronic support systems and radar warning receivers. Because of their properties as low power, variable frequency, wide bandwidth, LPI radar waveforms are difficult to intercept by ESM systems. In recent years, studies on the classification of waveforms used by these types of radar have been accelerated. In this study, Time-Frequency Images (TFI) has been obtained from the LPI radars waveforms by using Choi-Williams Distribution method. From these images, feature vectors have been generated using Gabor Wavelet transform. In contrast to many methods in the literature, waveform classification has been performed by directly comparing the feature vectors obtained without using any machine learning method. With the method we propose, classification accuracies were obtained at intervals of 2 dB between -20 dB and 10 dB and performed at reasonable classification accuracy rates up to -8 dB SNR value. Better results than the best reported in the literature were obtained for some signal types. The results obtained for all waveform types are given in comparison with the results of the existing methods in the literature.